Syndicate Bank

Secures 25,000 endpoints from ransomware with Trend Micro

Overview

Established in 1925, Syndicate Bank is one of India’s oldest banks, with a prominent presence in South India. The bank has 35,000 employees and operates more than 4,000 branches across India. It recorded an operating profit of 24,582 crore rupees for the financial year of 2017-2018. The bank has a vast portfolio of services, including finance and insurance, consumer banking, corporate banking, investment banking, private equity, mortgages, and credit cards.

Syndicate Bank has been a recipient of several awards over the past 90 years, the most notable being the ‘National Award for Excellence in Lending to Micro Enterprises’ from the Ministry of MSME, Government of India. The bank was also named ‘Best Performer’ of commercial banks operating in Karnataka by NABARD, under the category of ‘Highest Average Loan Size’.

Challenges

With increasing ransomware outbreaks and cybercrime attacks in the financial sector, Syndicate Bank wanted to ensure virus definitions were updated on all endpoints at all times across all geographies. The main priority was to avoid vulnerabilities and to provide security against data loss and theft. They decided to seek out multi-dimensional protection by securing a robust endpoint protection and data loss prevention solution, with advanced security against ransomware attacks and unknown threats.

As one of India’s prominent banks, Syndicate Bank has a pan-Indian presence, with more than 4,000 branches, including 1,319 branches in underbanked districts and 995 branches in minority concentration districts. Additionally, Syndicate Bank operates 979 Ultra-Small Branches (USBs), which are located in unbanked villages with a population of more than 5,000.

Syndicate Bank required an endpoint security solution with a pan-Indian roll out, spread across 4,000 branches and 25,000 endpoint devices. Trend Micro’s solution was to be deployed ‘in-motion’ ensuring no impact to regular operations. The solution also had to be deployed effectively, taking into account bandwidth prioritization to other systems during business hours and by leveraging an efficient centralized deployment system.

Why Trend Micro

Syndicate Bank chose Trend Micro’s endpoint solution suite based on the system of tenders, along with rigorous evaluation of the various technical capabilities of the solution that was conducted via a proof of concept and pilot penetration testing. Trend Micro also had an advantage of a high penetration in the financial sector, due to the bespoke architecture suited for the banking and financial services environment. Being named a ‘Leader’ in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms, Trend Micro, with proven capabilities in high-fidelity machine learning and behavioural analysis in endpoint security, met the requirements of the bank.

Solution

Trend Micro™ OfficeScan™ protection, with integrated data loss prevention (DLP), was deployed across more than 25,000 endpoints, out of which 6,000 machines were enabled with the endpoint DLP feature, where the external access is provided from the endpoint machine. The solution suite was deployed in partnership with CMS IT Services, who successfully implemented the solution across all endpoints in 60 days. CMS IT Services successfully managed remote deployment centrally. They further utilized the service from the tools team for building and bundling a self-executable script and customized client software.

Trend Micro OfficeScan, powered by XGen™ security, infuses high-fidelity machine learning into a blend of cross-generational threat protection techniques to eliminate security gaps across any user activity and any endpoint. It constantly learns, adapts, and automatically shares threat intelligence across the environment. This provides a blend of threat protection, which is delivered via an architecture that uses endpoint resources more effectively.

The DLP module is a complimentary endpoint solution that offers protection of sensitive data for maximum visibility and control. It secures private data on-or-off network, including encryption of files before it leaves the network. The DLP module further offers protection against data leaks via cloud storage, USB drives or connected mobile devices, Bluetooth connections, and other media.

Results

Syndicate Bank was extremely satisfied with Trend Micro’s endpoint solution, which was deployed swiftly and effectively with their partner CMS IT Services. Trend Micro’s powerful endpoint protection suite, with high-fidelity machine learning and behavioural analysis, now protects Syndicate Bank’s endpoints against ransomware attacks and virus threats, and safeguards against data loss and theft.

Syndicate Bank experienced the following benefits after the successful deployment of Trend Micro’s solution.

Reduced complexity and cost of DLP: The integrated DLP module has minimized complexity and reduced the cost of data security, enabling easy tracking, and securing all confidential data from multiple points within the organization and in the cloud.